The present invention relates to an Internet camera system, which includes a file server connected to the Internet, an Internet camera capable of transmitting image files to the file server through a public telephone network, and a terminal device capable of viewing the images transmitted to and stored in the file server.
An example of a conventional Internet camera is disclosed in Japanese patent No. 3034243. The Internet camera disclosed in the above-described patent includes an Internet camera which is capable of transmitting digital image data to a predetermined file server connected to the Internet in accordance with a predetermined schedule.
In the above system, a user having an account in the predetermined file server uses a terminal device, which is connected to the Internet and has a client function for the file server, and views the images stored in the file server in the form of image files.
However, in the conventional Internet camera system, it is only possible to view the images, which have been transmitted from the camera in accordance with the predetermined schedule, e.g., at every predetermined interval, and it has been impossible for a user to view images captured at user's desired timings.